Witty showcases the funny side of opportunity

April 10, 2013|JEFF HARRELL | South Bend Tribune

Robert Franklin, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune

James Witty wants to give comics a shot at the top punch line on the marquee.

The South Bend comic and owner of The Drop Comedy Club has invited club owners and some of the top comedy bookers from Chicago to New York City to check out 16 of the top funny men and women the Midwest has to offer.

“We wanted to create a showcase where booking agents and owners could get together to network and see up-and-coming headline-level talent in hopes to book them as headliners,” Witty says.

While industry types evaluate the talent during The Evolution Comedy Showcase, the public can enjoy two shows of laughs from 16 top comics for a paltry $5.

“It’s an unbelievable show for that amount of money,” Witty says, citing comics traveling to The Drop from Chicago, Indianapolis, New York City, Toledo and Detroit.

“Unbelievable talent,” he says. “We also have Mick Foley from the WWE.”

Yes, that Mick Foley, former WWE wrestler and best-selling author. Foley, born in Bloomington, Ind., and raised in Long Island, N.Y., has added comedy to his versatile stable of entertainment antics.

Alexander, Osborne and Bueno are hardly strangers to South Bend. All have performed at The Drop, as have Gailey, Williams and Alexander.

Alexander and Osborne both entertained The Drop’s opening-night crowd in November, with Osborne cracking wise during an off-the-cuff routine.

“I read that there are 10,000 people in American that don’t know they have diabetes,” Osborne riffed.

“How did they get that stat? I mean, if they don’t know they have diabetes, how do you know?”

Witty, 37, toyed with comedy growing up in South Bend before hitting the stage for real five years ago.

His standup career evolved on stages from South Bend to Kalamazoo, outwards to Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis.

In 2008, Witty formed his own comedy troupe — Age of the New — a cutting-edge troupe made up of 12 comedians of various backgrounds, genders and ethnicities, some of whom came out of Chicago’s Second City.

Last year, Witty decided to open his own club inside the iconic Dew Drop Inn on the corner of Lafayette Boulevard and Sample Street and give his fellow comics another stage of opportunity.

On Saturday that opportunity will come for the 16 comics on tap in front of invitees from the Laugh Factory and Up Comedy Club in Chicago, the Funny Farm in Youngstown, and the Joke Factory in Evansville, among others.

“I want to be the next Comedy Store,” Witty says of the famed Los Angeles comedy venue that is known for opening up its stage to young comics looking for a shot at stardom.